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TECH WEEK: How Apple launched the war against all PC's in 1984 and set the stage for Obama



I actually remember seeing this ad when it first dropped. Yeah, I'm kinda old. I never get tired of watching it though. When you think about how forward thinking Apple ad executives were on the idea of their positioning and messaging, its amazing.

By polarizing themselves against the PC makers, framing them as old and a huge digital bureaucracy, they hit all PC companies hard in the gut. It was tactical genius. PC makers have never been able to unfetter themselves from the frame Apple put them in.

Not only were they clear on the positioning then, they don't appear to have ever left it. I can't imagine how expensive this ad was at the time. But it was priceless in its timeless effect.

So timeless, someone made this remake of the ad and put it online in support of Barack Obama's campaign. It shook Clinton's campaign to the core. Like PC's, Clinton was never able to shake the frame this ad put her in.

The tech game is amazing isn't it? Obama's Apple ad made the world rethink how youtube, online campaign tactics and attaching a political campaign to a brand could effect elections.

I was just going back and forth with my good man Doug about who did this ad, who got paid, how did all that footage used and Steve Jobs not put a legal foot in dat azz? The world may never know.



-Beyond Urban Branding

beyondurban@gmail.com

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